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Arthur and I flinch simultaneously and I turn to find Elias leaning against my doorframe, his arms crossed. The hallway is dark behind him. His eyes are impassive and a chill rolls down my neck at his demeanor.
“It’s his heart, Elias. I wanted to return it to him.” I look back to Arthur. His eyes are filled with turmoil. What’s wrong? “Arthur?” I ask, leaning forward to touch his face.
Elias mutters behind me ominously, “You’ve just set the devil himself free.”
My stomach sinks and Arthur looks at me, letting those tears fall onto his heart as he whispers, “I hate this part.”
55
Edgar
Lucina sleeps by my side, her white hair spread over my sheets. Painful cries escape her lips.
I sit at the edge of the bed and glance down at her. My eyes are heavy but no rest will visit me. Sully hums in the back of my mind, The girl is in pain.
Yeah, and so is everyone else in this castle.
My gaze lingers around the hand I thrust through Raine’s chest. The bones are stained red. I crack my neck and look away, not willing to see the horrible things I did today. For nothing, I might add.
Aervin is dead.
Lucina is dying.
Sully laughs darkly and scratches its long finger down my spine. The girl is dying no matter what. I promised you’d see your friends again, didn’t I? It’s time for us to leave this place, Edgar. Time for us to make things better.
I look down at Lucina once more. She winces in agony.
“What are you saying?” I ask Sully. My fingers twitch at my sides.
If you kill her, I’ll bring them back. You’ve collected enough darkness to bring back three. She and that boy you’re so upset about will be by your side forever. Sully plants the dark seed in my head, and the longer I think about it, the less I find wrong with the idea. She’s dying no matter what I do.
Why shouldn’t I make it painless for her?
I smile and let my hand glide across her cheek one last time. The warmth and softness of her lips will forever be a mystery to me. It will haunt my existence, but at least I can keep her here with me.
Her neck is weak. It takes only one swift jerk to snap it.
She never even woke up. What a pleasant thing I’ve done for her.
I brush her white strands from her face and press my bare teeth to her lips. A kiss she’ll never know I gave her.
Sully shifts under my skin and whispers, Good. Now wake them up. We are the Necromancer and play with the dead we shall.
Power thrums through my bones and darkness crawls over Lucina’s body, seeping into her skin and fading. I watch for a few moments as her eyes slowly open.
The whites of her eyes are black. The pain and fractures are gone. She sits up, swaying a bit before looking up at me absently.
Sully doesn’t have to tell me that Lucina’s soul isn’t here anymore, that much is evident. But she’s breathing and moving and looking at me like I’m not a fucking monster.
Giddiness flows through me. I move through the castle quickly, Lucina trailing behind me in equal silence like a puppet. The professors left the pile of bodies from the exam in the courtyard to be burned at dawn.
And they think I’m the monster?
I find Aervin, his body covered in frost with the early morning spring air, but still very much intact. The darkness flows from my veins and into his, and when his eyes blink and open once more I start to cry. Holding my friend close, I say, “She took you from me. But you’re okay now.” I wipe my tears away. Aervin blinks at me and tilts his head. But when I smile, he reciprocates like a mirror and that’s enough for me.
He and Lucina look at one another before returning their attention to me. I close my eyes and think of Vinnie, Rowan, Tamaris, and Alani, rueful that they couldn’t be here with us.
Sully claws at the back of my mind. You still have one more.
